This invention relates to improved feedstuffs and methods for obtaining them. One embodiment of the invention relates to selecting batches of a feedstuff for use in an animal feed, and enhancing the selected batches of the feedstuff with one or more nutrients to obtain an improved feedstuff. Other embodiments of the invention relate to the improved feedstuff, an animal feed comprising the feedstuff, and a method of feeding an animal with the feedstuff.
Animal feeds contain a variety of ingredients. One example poultry feed contains 50% corn, 25% soyabean meal, 20% byproducts suitable for animal feed, and 5% minerals, vitamins, supplements and other feed additives. Feed formulations for other animals may be different and, like poultry, may vary within any given animal type. Soyabean meal is one common ingredient in animal feeds, serving as a source of, for example, vegetable protein.
Control over the nutrient composition of animal feeds assists in the healthy and efficient growth of the animals. The constituent raw materials for use in animal feeds, however, often vary significantly in nutrient composition. For example, soyabean meal is classified into high protein soyabean meal (HPSBM) with 49% protein, and low protein soyabean meal (LPSBM) with 44% protein. In reality, however, neither product has a fixed level of protein. Instead, the protein level varies within certain tolerance limits about an average value among batches of the products. Soyabean meal also contains amino acids and other nutrients. Similar to the amount of protein, the amounts of amino acids, for example lysine, methionine, threonine and tryptophane, vary between different batches of soyabean meal. For instance, a coefficient of variation (xe2x80x9cCVxe2x80x9d) of approximately 10% of lysine and methionine levels is common between batches of soyabean meal.
Variations in nutrient levels between batches of feedstuffs, such as soyabean meal, render it difficult to ensure that an animal""s diet includes the desired levels of nutrients. One attempt at ensuring desired levels of nutrients in animal feed includes assessing the natural variation of the level of nutrient in batches of material, and adding a sufficient amount of supplemental nutrient to all batches to achieve a guaranteed high level of the nutrient. This technique does not reduce the natural variation in nutrient levels. Instead, it simply raises the average level of the nutrient to a higher average level. Thus, some batches of the raw material will still contain less than needed levels of nutrients. Other batches, on the other hand, will contain excess levels of nutrients, leading to extra cost and higher levels of pollution in the form of nitrogen and phosphorus in the manure of animals fed those diets.
The invention relates to improved feedstuffs and methods for obtaining them. The feedstuffs made according to the invention possess consistent, desired levels of nutrients with a lower than natural variance in those levels.
Applicants have found that certain clusters of a feedstuff can be identified, for example at a soy crusher, having nutritional profiles that make those batches favorable to feed formulation software that chooses beneficial materials for inventory and for inclusion in feed formulations at a mill. These clusters are undervalued if one only looks at the expected profile of nutrient composition rather than on actual measured values, and if one only looks at the relative proportions of nutrients with respect to the specifications among all of the feed formulas produced by the feed mill.
With reference to the clusters of batches discussed above, only minimal supplementation of desired nutrients may be necessary to reach a target nutrient composition, enough product can be manufactured from the supplemented batches to meet anticipated demand, and the value of the final product can be higher than the price of supplement and raw material. For example, total protein and total and digestible methionine and lysine can be measured in batches of soyabean meal, a cluster of those batches can be found that has relative proportions of these nutrients close to a desired value, minimal supplementation of only synthetic methionine may be needed to reach a target composition, and animal feeds using the improved feedstuff can be lower in cost, lower in variability, and higher in digestibility than that which could be obtained by conventional feed formulation with existing raw materials.
One embodiment of the invention is a method that comprises:
measuring the level of one or more nutrients in batches of a feedstuff;
determining a target nutrient composition of the feedstuff;
identifying at least one cluster of one or more batches of the feedstuff;
determining, for the at least one cluster, an amount of one or more supplemental nutrients needed by the batches in the cluster to reach the target nutrient composition; and
determining, for at the least one cluster, an economic advantage to supplementing the batches in the cluster with the one or more supplemental nutrients.
Other embodiments of the invention relate to supplementing the batches in the cluster and combining them to make an improved feedstuff. Still other embodiments of the invention cover the improved feedstuff, an animal feed comprising the improved feedstuff, and a method of feeding the animal feed to an animal. Another embodiment of the invention is a feasibility method. The feasibility method involves analyzing only a fraction of a total number of batches of feedstuff to estimate the composition of the total number of batches, and then determining from those results an economic advantage to proceed to make the improved feedstuff from a projected number of batches within the total. Another embodiment of the invention is a production method, which involves making the improved feedstuff once approved under the feasibility method.